Ukrainian priest hangs himself on Church Porch

Kiev, June 30, Interfax – A priest was found hanged on the porch of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Church in the town of Malaya Berezanka in the Kiev region, Ukraine.

Forensic experts said the death was not violent. The body was sent to the forensic laboratory for a postmortem, Kiev regional police spokesman Mykola Zhukovych told Interfax.

The police said that the priest belonged to the self-proclaimed “Kiev Patriarchate”.

Villagers told the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper in Ukraine that the priest had personal problems – he separated with his wife and started drinking.

“People said that the priest had no home for several years and spent nights at the church,” the newspaper said.

Some villagers presumed that the priest might have been killed.

“Suicide is a mortal sin for any person, and it is even more so for a priest! However, it could be an imitation of suicide. I cannot recall a single priest suicide in Ukraine,” the “Kiev Patriarchate” spokesman Yevstratiy Zorya told the newspaper.

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